Avunu (Telugu: అవును) (English: 'yes') is a 2012 suspense thriller Telugu film written and directed by Ravi Babu and actress Poorna is playing the lead role and Harshvardhan Rane is playing an important role in this film and the movie has no songs.[1][2][3][4] The film, which was made on a budget of 45 lakhs, did astonishingly well at box office which came as a big surprise to even the director.[5]

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The story of Avunu revolves mainly around Mohini (Poorna) and her husband Harsha (Harshvardhan Rane). They are a newly married couple and they settle down in a gated community near Gandipet called ‘Classic Homes’. Very soon, strange and unexplained phenomena are observed in the house. A ghost / spirit starts stalking Mohini and takes voyeuristic pleasure in watching her nude while dressing up etc.

Meanwhile, their neighbors have a small kid, Vicky, who claims to be able to speak to his dead grandfather. Vicky seems to see the spirits of departed souls but no one believes him. He claims that the spirit of Captain Raju is in the house of the newlyweds. Harsha and Mohini make plans to go for a honeymoon to Paris. But things take an ugly turn once the ghost decides to start getting aggressive in its overtures towards Mohini. The shell shocked young lady attempts to flee from the evil spirit, but all her attempts are blocked.

Slowly after Vicky speaking to his Father about his habit of saying sorry to the photo of the dead grandfather since his carelessness was the reason for the old man's death, Vicky’s parents and the people around Mohini realize that the spirit of Captain Raju is real and Vicky's Father runs to Harsha's house to save them from the spirit of Captain Raju after Vicky's prophecy that the couple would die in the hands of Captain Raju. Meanwhile things get worse as Captain Raju gets into the body of Harsha and tries to rape her. Mohini stabs restlessly Harsha with a knife. Vicky's Father and the watchman save them and Harsha is sent to hospital. Meanwhile, a police officer arrests Mohini and takes her to police station for interrogation.

There the Circle Inspector Janardhan (Jeeva) interrogates her and Mohini narrates the whole story. When he asks about the ghost, Mohini shows towards the police who escorted her. Later the watchman tells that Captain Raju is a Labour Supplier who is an Intense Womanizer. The whole Labour killed him and placed his Pieces of Body under the slab of classic homes. The climax is shown that footprints of Captain Raju follows Mohini on a wet floor while she is moving towards the I.C.U. where Harsha is under the supervision of Doctors which implies the death of the couple according to Vicky's prophecy.

Most of the film was Shot at Outer Ring Road of Hyderabad & near Gandipet. Ravi Babu shot the film intelligently with a budget of approximately 45 Lakhs. The movie was then picked up by D Suresh Babu for a price of approximately 3.50 Crores after he became convinced about the film’s potential. Prasad V Potluri later became associated with the film by picking up a stake from D. Suresh Babu.[6]

In words of the Director Ravi Babu in an interview to Jeevi of Idlebrain.com - " The triggering point to the story of the film is derived from an experience narrated by my earlier film Nuvvila’s heroine Yami Gowtam. She said that she got a spooky feeling that some invisible man is observing her when he shifted to a new flat. She immediately vacated it. After listening to her experience, I went to Sitara hotel in Ramoji Film City to stay. I too though about that concept and felt the weird feeling of some invisible person is watching me. I vacated the hotel room in midnight after 1 am drove to my home. I have never stayed in that hotel later. That was the triggering point for my story. The feeling of somebody watching us and we unable to watch them is a spooky feeling. There was no such full-fledged Telugu film so far. It is a challenging task to have an invisible man as adversary. But I am confident that we pulled it off well. Since it is a new concept, I made sure that the story is dealt in a simple way. However, I didn’t compromise on narration and style.

When we see thrillers, you observe the director playing around with camera movements to create an effect. In Avunu film, camera is static. Camera never moves. I tried to emulate the naked eye while shooting the film. We have actors moving around, but not camera. Hence no trolleys, zooming lenses etc. were used. We have recently screened it to friends. They liked the photography and said that framing is good. Nobody noticed it until I told them that there are no camera movements in the movie.

I have searched for images of elephants on internet and didn’t find any image that has a standing elephant like we have in our poster. Hence we have bought over 50 images of elephants in different poses. I called a visual artist and made him draw an image of elephant holding a girl. We use that drawing as the base and recreated it by using various parts of various elephant images. Since these images were shot using different light schemes, we had to convert all the image into one lighting scheme before cutting each part, posture to make what you see in the poster. We used ropes for heroine and shot the image of terrified lady. There by we achieved photo-realism. This thing would not have possible 10 years back. I created a visual metaphor for the theme of my film using this poster. I got this idea out of blue and I wanted a gigantic animal holding a terrified girl in hands. When I wanted gigantic animal, names like dinosaur, gorilla etc. came in my head. But these animals are much used in Hollywood flicks. If I use dinosaur or gorilla, they will immediate draw parallels to Hollywood films like Jurassic Park, King Kong etc. Hence I have chosen elephant which closely represents India. This poster is basically a metaphor for ‘damsel in distress’.

The Telugu and Tamil versions of Avunu were shot under 50 working days. But it was post-production that took a lot of time. We had to create many shots and things during post production stage and it took us 3 months. The computer graphics in this film are going to be realistic. PVP is planning to release Tamil version at a later point of time."[7]

DNA India gave a review stating "What keeps Avunu intact is the fact that it encompasses and presents everything within two hours to the audience, who are hooked and wondering what's about to unfold. Unlike Ram Gopal Varma's films, which uses darkness, cinematographer Sudhakar Reddy captures the excitement in bright light. Sekhar Chandra substantiates the tense mood of the film with a fitting background score. Avunu is a thrilling experiment worth watching".[8] Jeevi of idlebrain.com gave a review of rating 3/5 stating "Telugu film lovers are driven by drama and intensity in this genre. Ravi Babu is a kind of director who directs films within his sensibilities. Avunu is such a kind of thriller where the fear factor and drama aren’t Indianized. If you like film of horror/thriller genre, you may watch it for it’s sensibilities and different filmmaking techniques."[9] Mahesh S Koneru of 123telugu.com gave a review of rating 3.25/5 stating "Ravi Babu’s ‘Avunu’ is a well made movie that has great pace and is a good watch. He should be appreciated for coming up with such different and clever films. The director succeeds in stoking two very raw emotions in the movie – lust and fear. If you love horror flicks, you should not miss this one."[10] NDTV gave a review stating "Filmmaker Ravi Babu always presents something new in his films and true to his earlier works, the director has tried to adopt a unique storyline for this horror film too. Overall, definitely worth a watch for all horror movie lovers."[11] Oneindia Entertainment gave a review of rating 3/5 stating "Though Avunu is a little boring at times, the maintenance of horror factor is good in the film. The commercial success of the film depends on how the audiences receive it."[12] postnoon.com gave a review stating "Ravi Babu deserves a pat on his back for crafting one of the finest suspense thrillers in Telugu in recent times, but the film truly belongs to Poorna."[13] The Hindu gave a review stating "It doesn’t come with a horror certification, so watch it whether you have a weak or strong heart."[14] Rediif.com gave a review of rating 3/5 stating "Avunu is cinema one doesn't get to see often. It is well written and crafted even though it takes its inspiration from Hollywood movies. Ravi Babu scores with this film. If you like the supernatural horror genre, go watch Avunu."[15]

The film has caught the attention of Bollywood and plans are on for the movie to be remade. Anushka Sharma is likely to be cast in the Hindi version. PVP Cinemas that has acquired Tamil dubbing rights is planning to dub and release Tamil version as Aama (literal Tamil translation for Telugu word Avunu) in November. It was Reported that Ravi Babu is willing to direct the Hindi version if he gets the right cast.[16]